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Jackson Five Friday: Lasting Love

Last week I wrote about how love is patient and kind, and not a victim. I guess that probably awakened my senses all the more to victimhood. Golly, I’ve just been seeing it and its destruction everywhere I look. Well, everywhere but the Bible that is.

This week I studied Psalm 63 at Bible study. David penned it while being chased in the wilderness by his homicidal son, Absalom. One might think that the dire and horrific reality of such betrayal might lead David to play the victim, but, of course, that’s not at all what David did.

Instead, David chose to remember God’s faithfulness and sought to stay close to Him. The Psalm even makes the bold statement that God’s love is better than life. David vowed to praise God as long as he lived. Is that what I would do if my life was threatened in any way, much less by my own son?

Sadly, very few of us earnestly seek God the way David did. We do not recognize that knowing God is the longing of our soul. We try everything under the sun, denying the truth of St. Augustine: “Our hearts are restless till they find rest in thee.”

James Montgomery Boice has a wonderful three-volume commentary on the Psalms. In response to Psalm 63, Boice writes, “In view of such great love, isn’t it strange that we spend so much time trying to find satisfaction elsewhere, even in earthly loves, and so little time seeking and enjoying the lasting love of God.”

This weekend, may we all be more like David — sinfully flawed and yet determined to know the lasting love of God.

I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and glory. Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you…Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings. I stay close to you; your right hand upholds me. Psalm 63:2-3, 7-8.

The Rolling Stones wrote about lack of satisfaction more than 55 years ago, Augustine more than 1500 years ago. When will the world see that only God truly satisfies? When will I start living into the truth that God’s steadfast love is better than life? Praying it’s today!